38.45
They
had been appointed, they said, to act as commissioners with Cn. Manlius for
the purpose of concluding peace with Antiochus and finally settling the terms
of the treaty which had been outlined by L. Scipio. Cn. Manlius did his
utmost to upset the negotiations and, if he got the chance, to inveigle the
king into his power. When the king became aware of the consul's designs,
though he was frequently invited to a personal interview, he avoided not
only meeting him but even the very sight of him. When the consul was bent
upon crossing the Taurus range, it was with the utmost difficulty that he was
prevented from doing so by the commissioners, who warned him against
tempting the doom foretold in the Sibylline Books for every one who
overpassed the limits fixed by Fate. Nevertheless, he marched his army up
and encamped almost on the summit where the mountain streams flow
opposite ways. When he found that the king's subjects remained perfectly
quiet and that there was nothing to justify hostilities, he led his troops round
against the Gallograeci, a nation against whom no declaration of war had
been made either by the authority of the senate or the order of the people.
Who else would have ever dared to do such a thing? The wars with
Antiochus, Philip, Hannibal and Carthage were fresh in all men's memories;
in every one of these the senate issued its decree and the people their
mandate; envoys had been sent beforehand frequently to demand
satisfaction, and as a final step to declare war. "Which of these
preliminaries," the speaker continued, "has been so observed by you, Cn.
Manlius, as to make us regard that war as waged by the people of Rome and
not simply as a marauding expedition of your own? But were you ever
content with that? Did you march your army straight against those whom
you had elected to regard as your enemies? Did you not on the contrary
make a roundabout march through winding roads, halting at all the
cross-roads in order that in whatever direction Eumenes' brother Attalus
should direct his march, you might follow him like a mercenary captain, you,
a consul with a Roman army? Did you not visit every hole and corner of
Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Phrygia, collecting money from the tyrants and their
officers scattered through the land? What business had you, pray, to interfere
with Oroanda or with other equally unoffending communities? But about this
war, on the strength of which you are seeking a triumph, in what way did
you conduct it? Did you fight on favourable ground, at a time of your own
choosing? You are certainly right in claiming that honours should be paid to
the immortal gods. For in the first place they would not let the army pay the
penalty of its commander's recklessness in making an aggressive war in
defiance of the law of nations, and in the second place they brought against
us wild animals not men.
